24 Season Finale Review & Discussion

Normally, I come away from a show with a critical eye towards issues or angles that distract me from the main plot, yet this seventh season of 24 and its finale came at us with a new sense of energy, focus and desperation that I don’t remember feeling before. I also found myself hating not one, but two characters from the show while being shown a side of Jack Bauer that I was not used to seeing. That was unique and somewhat disturbing.

This year we had no CTU and Jack had to work as a cooperative consultant for the FBI (imagine a consultant that’s one of the most dangerous men alive!). We did get to see some of our CTU favorites but in unique scenarios.

You’ll see why after the break, where the SPOILERS are hiding. You’ve been warned.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

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Up until the finale, we were thrown one curve after another but that’s the norm for a day in the life of Jack Bauer.

Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) was removed (read: borrowed) by the FBI from the Senate hearings where he was on trial for his brutal but necessary methods from previous seasons. The FBI came looking for him for help with dealing with someone from his past – Tony Almeida.

In the course of his duties, Jack is infected with the chemical bio-weapon and for the first time, we see Jack at a disadvantage. Dealing with the affects of the bio-weapon, he’s weakened and confused at times. It was eerie to see Jack this way.

We found out that Tony Almeida (Carlos Bernard) was alive but was working with the bad guys, while working for the good guys, and then, as it turned out, Tony was working for the bad guys to kill a bad guy. Bernard portrayed Almeida very well and I really ended up disliking him.

Almeida is the ultimate when it comes to doing everything necessary to achieve his goal, no matter what. At this stage of the game, what little morals he might have had are gone.

In the course of the first few hours of the day, we found that a secret splinter-group of the CTU was still in operation in the form of the ever sarcastically snippy Chloe O’ Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and the earnestly focused Bill Buchanan (James Morrison).

Through a round-about fashion, Chloe ends up assisting the FBI with their computer woes, Bill Buchanan selflessly gives his life to save the President. Bills death was a stunner for viewers and Jack alike.

From one moment to the next, the terrorists are thwarted by the FBI, with the assistance of a sick Jack Bauer, who was able to maintain some semblance of composure with medications that temporarily stave off the affects of the biochemical coursing through his system.

The Final Few Hours Ratcheted Up The Intensity

Despite having captured Tony Almeida, the terrorists get to Jack’s daughter and Jack is manipulated into helping Tony escape, much to our chagrin.

Tony takes Jack hostage with the intent of using his body as a source for a new bio-weapon. We learn that everything Tony has done he did in order to meet the mastermind behind all of the terror on this day, Alan Wilson (Will Patton). We learn that Wilson is the grand conspirator behind the deaths of Tony’s wife and President David Palmer back in season 5.

Back at the airport the FBI manages to apprise Kim that she’s being watched by the terrorists. The cops show up, a shoot out ensues in the airport and one of the terrorists makes a break for it. The FBI aren’t there, so Kim follows the terrorist hoping to retrieve his laptop. He crashes his car after being shot and Kim needs to get on Twitter bad.

Kim bravely digs deep and crawls in the burning car to retrieve a laptop because it’s the only connection to where her father, Jack might be.

In the end, after tracking the laptop signal to where Jack was being held, the FBI shows up in time just before Tony could detonate the bomb that he strapped to Jack, with the intent to kill master bad guy Alan Wilson.

Back at the White House, meanwhile, other things were going on. The First Daughter, Olivia Taylor (Sprague Grayden), has tricked her way into the White House Chief Of Staff position and is a very manipulative little b*. I really hated this woman – hence my kudos to Grayden for her portrayal of this little trickster.

Olivia lets her emotions get the best of her and she has Jonas Hodges (Jon Voight) assassinated. Hodges was one of the initial middlemen in this terrorist plot and was responsible for killing Olivia’s brother at the end of the 24: Redemption.

Aaron Pierce (Glenn Morshower) gets the former Chief of Staff, Ethan Kanin (Bob Gunton), to assist in retrieving a recording device disk from his old office and gets the phone record evidence necessary to prove Olivia’s involvement in Hodges’ assassination.

President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones) has her daughter arrested for her transgressions against the law. She has no other choice, as the leader of the nation. This tough decision may destroy her family.

In the beginning of the day, Special Agent Renee Walker (Annie Wesching), was rather aghast at Jack’s brutal methods. After slowly recognizing that his methods are more effective and expedient than the legal process (and having her boyfriend murdered by Tony Almeida), she crossed a threshold that she never thought she would.

In the FBI interrogation room, the man behind it all, Alan Wilson, smugly sits patient, knowing he’s untouchable. He can’t be connected to anything. Actor Will Patton has this touch to playing insidiously evil, cunning men.

Renee enters the interrogation room with her gun and the scene fades to black. We’re left making our own assumptions or wishes of what happens next.

Kim goes to the hospital where her dad, Jack is dying. He finally decides it is time to let go and he’s in a coma from the medications needed to alleviate the pain. Despite Jack earlier declining the idea of an experimental stem cell procedure to save his life, Kim decides to go ahead and have the risky procedure. Will it save Jack’s life? We’ll know for sure when season 8 starts.

This Finale Was Fun

Some say the 24 season 7 finale episode was predictable. We’ve seen old and new characters. Tony was not killed, so maybe we’ll see him again? He can always manage a break out.

I’ve always enjoyed Aaron Pierce and I hope we get to see him again. We also found ourselves watching the return of Kim Bauer. I hope that next season, we get to see Kim some more. Who knows?

Some good justice got dispensed by the end of the season: Olivia Taylor paid the piper and Tony Almeida, for all his love torn revenge, failed when only inches from his goal. What a waste of all his energy, to finally be thwarted within feet of his target (see the pic above).

I really enjoyed the hard emotional transition that Renee Walker endured to become the perfect girl for Jack Bauer. More importantly, she understands Jack on a different level than most. Jack and Renee had a heart to heart talk about dealing with everything they had to do to get the job done and I felt a connection at a very deep level between the two.

I do believe she was stepping over the line as she walked into that interrogation room. But truly, I jest about “the perfect girl for Jack”, because we know jack never really enjoyed anything he had to do. Jack did what he had to, for his country.

I had fun with this episode, as many of the story lines were properly tied off and very little was left hanging, though I can’t wait to find out what happened with Renee. If she didn’t cross the line, I’d love to see her and Jack work together. The bad guys would be in so much trouble.

So does Jack Bauer live through the experimental treatment? I guess so since we have another season coming at us. In fact, 24‘s eighth season debuts Jan. 17, 2010! But even sooner, you can own the Blu-ray version of season 7, which was released on Tuesday, May 19th. That’s fast.

Tidbit: The 8th season of 24 is described as a real world political situation that takes place in New York approximately 12 to 18 months after the events of season 7. Filming starts in a few weeks.

Was it a good finale? Oh yeah. Was it predictable? Sort of, but what had me on the edge of my seat was worrying about that which I was expecting to not happen. Would they twist it up and tick me off? Or do the same ‘ol and bore me? I wasn’t bored wondering. I had fun. Did you? What did you like? Did anything irk you? Let us know your thoughts. We’re eager to hear them.

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Dan 5 years ago

I loathed the ending almost as much as I’ve loathed the rest of the series. The finale felt like one tiresome lecture after another.
The series as a whole was massively flawed: Almeida’s constant flip-flopping was ludicrous, the Whitehouse sub-plot was tiresome and didn’t engage me at all. In comparison with past 24 presidents and accompanying staff, this series was by far the worst.
I hope they can turn it around for series 8, but after being incredibly bored for large chunks of a series that’s felt like it’s been padded out to reach 24 episodes, I don’t know if I’ll even be watching.

They managed to do the impossible. They fixed Kim Bauer…I felt like her fall just got worse and worse until finally she did a good/mismarketed movie [Girl Next Door] and disappeared. She was TERRIBLE when she left. The character you could depend on to kill the momentum of the story and whine every five minutes.

They brought her all the way around. They slowly let us warm back up to her. Had her do something important to the storyline rather than just something that made more of a mess to deal with. She never hijacked the story, but let the story run through her life and responded to it.

She’s always been a good actress, but now I got hopes for what her character can do. The best the to happen to 24 is the downfall of CTU?

First of all i’d like to say that 24 is my favorite show of all time.The plots, camera angles, the actors, the credibility of the story, everything was perfect…I mean “was”. Day 6, was horrible. Ok, let me rephrase: from episodio 5 to 24 was horrible. The first four episodes were a rollercoster of emotion, adrenaline and good writing, but then…the bomb explode..Then what? Misleading stories? Russian and arab men tries to attack on US soil (same old stuff)? Everything was confusing enough…And the creative team depare themselfs with a big problem:24 lives from the characters we know from another seasons and we build a bond with them. So the lack of originality makes them to utilize characters from the past like Charles Logan, with sooo small crediblity in the plot. It was really necessary that stabbing scene by Martha “Unbalanced” Logan? What they were trying to do? Make peace with the audience by killing Charles Logan (everyone was expecting him to die for her sins during Day 5).

Sorry, i needed to get that off my chest. But lets talk about Day 7. Redemption was good, poverty in Africa and children exploitation is always a “nice” boost for a plot. But everything go away this season. First the rogue agents from CTU (they needed to put Chloe back in front of a computer), then Almeida…Bad in the beginning, then good, then good again…The only good thing that saves the caracter is the brilliant “image” that Carlos Bernard brings to a man that lost everything and don’t show any kind of emotion during the first 23 episodes (in the last episode the “She was pregnant!!” scene was very, very good)

Then Alan Wilson…Great choice of actor, but so few scenes from him to convince the audience that was the really the mastermind behind the hits on David Palmer and Michelle. And a man with his power does not go to a rendezvous just “because” Cara told him that Tony was “fine”. A man with an enormous intelectlike him would need much more from Tony to say at least, having a phone talk.

All of that contradicts his behaviour, always so calm, it seems nothing can mess with him. But in the end he’s fooled in one of the most stupid traps ever (the man is not caught by anyone after killing Ex-President David Palmer and after creating the most advanced conspiracy of all time his caught in an abandoned warehouse just because someone who was not even a big “head” in the organization wants a meeting…).

Then we have Kim Bauer.That girl always surprises me for the effort…Of trying to be a good actress. Ok first of all, let’s think: how many times did Kim have been kidnapded during all seasons? How many times did the villans utilize her to get whatever they want from her father? Ya, thats right…Millions of times! When i saw her in the airport i thought to myself: “Ohhh Kim alone in the airport talking in the phone with someone she loves…Ok probably is going to happen something to her…” Bingo! and that chase with high-weels…Well it was original. It’s not everyday that you see some hot girl chasing the bad guy making so much noise in high-weels as a Black-Sabbath concert. And another thing: why the hell she grow a spine this season? In the other seasons, when Kim smells danger she runned! But now she tries to be a heroe! Good for Jack! And Kim, next time you are on fire, please just rollover on the floor, instead of trying to take your coat with one hand and hold a laptop in the other hand…

But lets talk about another thing. The White House! Simbol of the most powerful man (woman) on Earth! One of the most secured places on Earth! Every security measures you can think of are there! And then…Some general from the third world had the alarm switched-off and go in (trough a wall)…Sorry, 24′s creative team, you lost me there…Oh well, what’s next? The Pentagon?

There were much more scenes that was ridiculous, in my point of view. But i only talk this way because this serie had has fooled for a long time. We see season 1,2,3 and think it’s impossible how they came up with that. And then when we thought they cannot make any better, they launch season5! And now the good ideas are gone…

The Good Things about this season:
Jack. Always Jack. We does everything! Shoots, kills, investigates, commands, deals with an infection, is tender with a daugther that he tought he lost a long time ago…This man can do everything! And the intensity we bring to every scene is overwhelming. I really like that Aaron Pierce was back. did you know we was the only carachter (besides Jack) to appear in all seasons? He’s the exemple of integrity, of what a good professional should be in every job.

I really dislike Olivia, and that’s a good thing as you said Bruce. Good choice of actress.

Renee…Oh man, Renee. Amazing how a person can change in 24 hours. She learned the hard way what is necessary to get the job done. For me the best scene in this finale was between her and Jack. They connect. I’m not saying in a romantic way, but she understanded Jack. The same way Almeida did for all the other seasons. I think no one was so close to him as her.

Ok, this was my review…I’m tired of writing…

PS – Just another thing: Jack is dying and his last phone call goes to a man he knew 2 episodes ago? WHAT A HELL? I understand the part when you want Jack to be forgiven for his racial profile, but this was not the way. The muslim man do not have enough screen time for the audience to sympathize with him…

I found the first hour and a half to be very entertaining, the action was good, I felt that character twists, especially Almeida was fun, and the totally anti-normal-writing where the police officers actually do something against the bad guys was very refreshing. The last thirty minutes, however, kind of let me down, I was expecting a much bigger of a bang. To me, the ending felt like a mid-season cliffhanger, it had no really big shock. The only thing I thought that could balance it, although Jack would have to be in a coma for most of it, would be that the next season would occur only a few days, or simply the next day after this season 7′s day. But since they insist on having it twelve to eighteen months after, the obvious prediction is easy. Jack gets healed so he can jump, shoot, torture, and scream again, Walker gets arrested for interrogating Wilson, and President Taylor goes lone wolf with the presidency. Those are the obvious prediction though they’ll probably have more than a few twists. I would have preferred a more surprising ending, like the very shocking Lost season finale which had me off the edge of my seat, on the floor with eyelids peeled. Anyway, that’s my opinion

“24″ is one of my favorite shows and I really REALLY liked this season. It was different from the other seasons and I liked how Jack had to respond to so many different situations on a personal level: finding out Tony’s alive, seeing Bill die, getting infected, seeing his daughter, being betrayed by Tony, etc. I really thought that Keifer Sutherland took Jack to a different level this season. I thought the actress who played Renee was AWESOME. She really became the character as the season wore on. I hope she’s back next season.

The only character who I thought was cast improperly was Janice. Ugh. Unbelieveable choice for her character, IMO.

All in all, I really liked this season. It was everything “24″ is supposed to be. Sure, there were some “WTF’s?”, but I found myself enjoying every episode and wanting to see the next episode.

First off Dan at top- In all due respect- If you were bored by this season of 24 I wonder what gets you excited. This was the best season ever for 24. Wildly exciting and very entertaining. Its TV- its silly to overthink it. If the final had a title it would be “The choices we live with”, as this was a theme that came to a head in the final two hrs. I loved the final and the season and couldn’t be more satisfied. For those who though this season was bad I suggest you read a book when its on because you are in the minority! What in the world do you want from this show?

So, 24 is definetly my favorite show, and after Season 6 ended, suffice it to say I was hugely upset. Then with the writers strike, and Keifer Sutherland being arrested, I was praying for an amazing season. Well the writers didn’t let me down. I would say this was by far the best season. They did a great job of connecting the story lines, and integrating the redemption story into the plot.
I also love the new president. She really proved she stands by her convictions in the finale with having her own daughter arrested.
Carlos Bernard did an amazing job of playing Tony. I found myself rooting for him even when he was a bad guy. He had been hurt so bad by the government and you grew to love him so much in past seasons that I just wanted him to find his peace. It also made for a great conflict between Jack and Tony.
For the first time, EVER, I actually enjoyed the character of Kim Bauer. She wasn’t whinning or complaining (or getting kidnapped for the 189th time). She made responsible choices, and then when push came to shove, she did what she had to do for her dad. Just like he had done for her.
I was extremely happy to see Chloe, Bill and Aaron return this season. Bill’s selflessness made for an amazing and sad shock. Aaron’s turn at the end with snooping on Olivia was also an amazing plot turn. It made me feel ok with the fact that I hated the character of Olivia so much, because everyone else did too.
Rene Walker and Janice from FBI were great additions (in my opinion) to the show… Rene showed a growth that she would do what needed to be done and not lose herself in the process, and Janice showed that she is good at what she does (and made Chloe a little more interesting).

Let’s keep something in mind: Different things wind people up or bore them to tears.

There are days I’m so busy, that the hectic pace can bore me… much like some Bond films that have nothing but non-stop explosions and “drama,” it becomes par for the course, so I get that even though someone might wind up about one show, another person could expect different things and be bored with it.

Let’s keep that in mind ’cause here at Screen Rant, we’re free to add our 2 cents and say what we want to.

I enjoyed the finale but it was the most predictable 2 hours of “24″ I have ever seen. In my fricken life.
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2 things that really pissed me off. Ooooh!!! Man!
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1-Olivia accepting the first data chip and not checking what was on it was super lame on her part,,, Doah!!
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2-I hated how Tony at the last moment didn’t shoot that guy. Double Doah!!
Just blow his brains out and explain it to him when he’s dead , you fool !!!!!!
Man that really pissed me off !!!
Then they let Renee take the fall for that turd. Argh !!!!
^
Anyone notice how after Kim grabbed the Laptop from the burning car she hands it over (as you can hear screams from inside the car) to Renee without even giving a S.
Kim really showed her CTU skills in the last hour, I loved that!!
I hope they bring her back into CTU next season!!!
^
Overall it was about a 6 out of 10 on the 790 scale.

I’m guessing that the reason they need to set the series up 12 to 18 months after is so they can get Jack and CTU all back online! Can’t wait!!!

The only real problem I have with this season’s finale is that Jack was basically incapacitated and removed from the action for most of the episode. I realize that it is because he was infected with the virus, but couldn’t they have just gotten him cured earlier? It seriously seems like a lack of writer creativity.

On a side note – Why does everybody hate season 6 so much? I LOVED season 6… well, not as much as season 3, but I thought 6 was awesome.

Well. If you forget the part where Aaron is shopping for fruit while a nuclear device is exploding in the same city…pulease. Season 6 was worse than awful. It was God-awful. The contrived plotlines – the soap opera of the over-the-top ridiculous Bauer clan – killing Curtis??? The whole season should be forgotten and never spoken of again!!

I thought the latter half of the season, especially the last few shows were so incredibly bad!!!!! But they were so bad they were laugh out loud funny! (So i sort of enjoyed them.) But come on! The President (by far the worst ever!) appoints her juvenile delinquent daughter Chief of Staff? Huh? Can they do that? When Kim was in trouble, Chloe looked so frustrated, it was written all over her face—”Again????”….i wanted so badly for her to come out and say it. Tony’s bad. Tony’s good. Tony’s brooding…..and brooding some more. Renee is shot and buried alive, hours later she’s running, jumping, swimming, and looking great. They tried so hard to be sure every single one of the minority characters (Middle Eastern/African American) were good guys it was so obvious and predictable… The guy he met twice is hanging out at the deathbed scene? What was the motivation of the bad guys anyway? Kim grabs the piping hot computer out of the car and never sets it down? it’s just kind of disappointing, cause this show used to be darn good!

I personally had developed my own theory for this season and the next.

Some sources said that the eighth season would start right after the 7th, but due to the heeadbutt incident, it got delayed.

I thought that Jack would still be able to live in Day 7 and will die @ the end of Day 8, as sources say he would. I believed that because Jack was getting worse, Renee would have become romantically related to him.

I dunno why … but at some point in Season 5 I thought, ok they’re doing the best work they’ve EVER done … but they’ve done damn near EVERYTHING now. It’s the Boston Public syndrome. Once everything reasonable that could go wrong has gone wrong [in the exact same place] there’s nothing left to do, but make up ridiculous stuff.

For a second, I thought they were gonna completely change the game for Season 6, have Jack breaking out of prison and all that. Instead they gave up and went completely insane, with the worst season they’d ever done.

Even when the other ones got bad, They were bad, because they were too slow in parts or betrayals didn’t come off that well … until we got a taste of full creative collapse in Season 6. Which makes all the others look so much better.

That’s why Season 7 was the best ever. We already know we’ve gotten the best 4 & 5, but the show was still going. This season was the best, because they completely invented every part of the threat as best they could and it came off a lot more believable than it ever should have.

They managed to bring in characters that we didn’t hate, even ones we already hated, but they made acceptable. It’s that this season kinda managed to put together damn near everything they’d done before together in new ways to make a full detailed and believable story from threats that shouldnt’ve felt real working with characters who shouldn’t have all worked.

But seriously…after the bar was lowered so much with Season 6 and every 24 fan losing all hope that there was any story that could be told even halfway decently, if any were left to be told. [There let a nuke explode last season, They a killed president, They've really done everything]

But they managed.

This is the best season they’ve ever done, because this is was a BS Bonus Round that turned out to be great all on its own, and remind you of as many thing as you can remember you loved about 24. The End.

The first season was amazing. And pretty experimental, with the whole real time thing. But it became sort of a blueprint for the seasons to come. It always had to be about CTU, Jack (of course), and the president/The White House. The writers just can’t stop thinking up stories that involve conspiracies around the president. STOP THAT FOR ONCE. Try something else, something unpredictable like the first season. They’re stuck in the conspiracy spreadsheet. Although season 7 was good, not great, it’s time to reinvent the show. Changing the city where it all takes place isn’t enough, guys.
Anyway, the finale was very good. And it’d better, because the three episodes prior to it were very slow. Letting season 8 take place right where the 7th ended would be a mistake. I’ll be watching anyway though.

@nancy m …lmfao…damn. I just what you said… *sigh* But Season 6 was so gd terrible. That since the first half of Season 7 was great, I was basically in panic mode … every week it was please don’t ruin everything you did. You don’t need anymore great moments, just finish it out…

I kinda wish it was 16 or something instead of 24 this year, because they hit a great stride and I thought they didn’t need to do anymore. Yea it was kinda wacky and ridiculous, but they didn’t Season 6 it. That’s all we can ask for…anymore. lol

hello this my favorits serious.when i see it i feeling iam in another world.i like all cast in this serious espisaly mr.bauar and your team in fbi and ctu.i hope if i have chance to partcipate in this serious espiualy with mr.bauar in ctu.i like nadia yaser in 6 season too. thanks for every bady paricpated in this serious.

What a great writer you are! I just watched the season 7 finale last night and went looking for reviews and found your site. This is an outstanding summary and review of the finale and season. Hope to keep up with your posts for Season 8. I think the writers (and actors) are doing some amazing work. Ripping things from he headlines and engaging us in a drama like they do (when you talk about seeing other sides of Jack…and feeling disturbed — this show TOUCHES and we connect with it) is not an easy task. Some would rather dance around issues and stay PC. I have seen nothing in 24 that could not happen in real life (with the exception of the use and application of technology). We just need the tech they use in the show to catch the real bad guys and stay ahead of them!